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What are Social Movements?

Social
Movements are instrumental to changing the path of a society. When a group of
people come together with a shared idea, they can create lasting effect by encouraging
change in a society or by resisting it; both of which will shape the future of
their society. But a social movement is not just a group of people with an
idea. If that were the case, every little group with a noble idea would be a
social movement. Social movements need organization, leadership and resources
if they ever hope to gain momentum and make an impact. There are different
forms of movements depending on their goal. Activist movements are aimed at
changing various aspects in the society while reactionary movements are actively
trying to resist change. Earlier in the commencement of social movements,
people were skeptical of the motivation of those involved in the social
movements. They were seen as dysfunctional, irrational and dangerous and that people
would only join because the social movements provided community and refuge from
the meaninglessness of life on one’s own.

What
is interesting about Social Movements is that it isn’t always the people who
are worst off that join up. More importantly is how people perceive their
situation; someone just barely making it can be extremely happy while someone
seemingly having it in life can be frustrated because they don’t feel respected
by their company. So, what we have to look at is the feeling of relative deprivation;
the feeling of discrepancy between legitimate expectations and realities of the
present. That’s not enough on its own. People must feel like they deserve
better and they must think that they cannot be helped by conventional means.
Those three things are necessary for a social movement to form; a relative deprivation,
a feeling of deserving better and the belief that conventional methods are
useless to help.

But
there are criticisms to this fact since even people who don’t feel deprived
will join a social movement. They join because they want to address a perceived
injustice that they may not even suffer from themselves. It can be too risky
for the most deprived people to participate in a movement because they may not
have the resource to participate or the opportunity to take time off work to
participate or promote the idea. Sometimes even when all three factors are
present, no social movement is created. Okay, so it has some problems but it’s
a start – at least. Resource mobilization approach focuses on aspects that
hinder or promote a social movement, like access to resources. Even a seemingly
simple act of gathering together a group of people with a shared idea is not
allowed everywhere – It takes more than idea to start a social movement. You
need money, materials, political influence and access to media. More than that,
a social movement needs a strong organizational base to recruit members and
then to unite them on a single idea. A good, charismatic figure is necessary to
lead the group and focus the thoughts of members and the oppressed on the
objective and to convince them to organize.

“Martin Luther King Jnr stood
as beacon to the people who were oppressed; He knew how to speak for the crowd
and unite them around a single idea and how to gain the support he need for the
social movement to succeed”

Social
movements begin by a few ideas shared by a few. Then, the public begins taking
notice of a situation that they perceive as a problem. At this point, people
begin to coalesce into an organized group and raise up the general stake. A
social movement’s greatest achievement will be to either success to changing
its host society or adapt. What is interesting is that in the end, social
movements become part of the bureaucracy they were trying to change. A
successful movement is eventually absorbed into existing institutions when it
has achieved its desired changes.

I
wonder if social movements of today will become accepted though in the future;
in the end, the social movement eventually declines. If it succeeded, it has
been incorporated into the dominant culture. If it fails, we will still see the
marks left in society by its passing.

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